LIVE: Burkina Faso v Cameroon | Africa Cup of Nations | #CAN2017
Match Info:
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS – GROUP A
Match K.O @ 21:00 Cairo Local Time
Venue: Stade d’Angondjé
The countries have met once before at the tournament when an Alphonse Tchami goal gave Cameroon a 1-0 win over hosts Burkina Faso in the 1998 opener.
Cameroon have won the competition four times, in 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2002, while the closest Burkina Faso came to glory was finishing runners-up in 2013.
Both countries will be eager to improve on their showing at the last finals in 2015 when they exited at the group stage. Cameroon drew twice and lost one ,while Burkina Faso drew once and lost twice.
Cameroon’s prospects have been hit by the loss of so many players. Two of the biggest names, Matip and Schalke striker Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, said their club careers took priority.
Coach Hugo Broos installed regular Lorient scorer Moukandjo as the new captain.
The African Nations Cup will provide more intense competition than at the World Cup as there are no weak teams in Gabon, Cameroon coach Hugo Broos said on Friday.
“I was a player at the World Cup but this is more intense than that. It is something special. This is Africa,” said the former Belgian international who was a member of the team which finished fourth in Mexico in 1986.
“In Europe there are a lot of international games where there is a six or seven goal gap between the teams but in the seven games I have had as Cameroon coach, I’ve seen there is hardly any difference between the teams.
“Here there are 16 teams who can win the Nations Cup and that makes it a very difficult assignment,” he added on the eve of Cameroon’s opening Group A match against Burkina Faso.
They play after the opening game between the hosts and newcomers Guinea Bissau at the Stade l’Amitie in the Gabonese capital.
“This is the error that Cameroon have made over the last years, they are still speaking about 20 years ago when they went on the field and scored twice in the first half and had the games sewn up. But it is no longer easy to win in Africa, even against the supposedly smaller teams.
Cameroon will also meet Guinea Bissau and Gabon in the first round as they seek their fifth Nations Cup title, and first since 2002.
